East-enders’ prayers are answered: Pizzeria Libretto to get second location this summer

This is the most exciting news we’ve heard all week: Max Rimaldi, Daniel Clarke and chef Rocco Agostino, the partners behind Pizzeria Libretto, are planning to open a second location of their wildly successful pizza joint on the Danforth. Less than a year after Enoteca Sociale, their second venture, opened to raves, the trio is close to finalizing a lease on an east-end space. We caught up with Agostino to find out the details on the new location, set to open as early as the end of this summer.

Agostino says the Danforth felt like a natural fit for Libretto’s casual vibe. “It’s a great area. There’s a lot of foot traffic, a lot of families. It’s a real neighbourhood. We’re all about neighbourhoods.” The new location will feel slightly larger than the Ossington Avenue one, he says, though it will have about the same number of seats. Just like at the original, a new wood-fired oven will be constructed for the space by a third-generation pizza oven maker from Naples. While decisions on the menu are not yet finalized, Agostino says east-enders can expect the same thin-crust Neapolitan-style pizzas and rustic appetizers that made the Ossington location such a hit.

As for the challenge of keeping three successful restaurants running, Agostino says it comes down to hiring the right people. “You definitely have to be comfortable with the people you have,” he says. “You have to be comfortable that they share the same ideas that you have.”